News From : DagangHalal.com (05 Jul 2010)
KUALA LUMPUR, July 5 (Bernama) — Bank Negara Malaysia is committed to undertake research to develop Syariah parameter references in its effort to achieve convergence and harmonisation of Islamic financial practices.
“Such important efforts to generate greater harmonisation in Islamic finance will enhance market efficiency, particularly in terms of accelerating the product development cycle and improving time to market,” said deputy governor Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim.
The central bank will also produce acceptable benchmarks of quality in terms of products, services, processes and practices against which Islamic financial institutions must aim to match or exceed, Muhammad said in his keynote address at the Asia Islamic Banking Conference here Monday.
With this objective in mind, he said the overall Islamic finance industry stood to benefit from commonality of practices leading to lower operating costs and the potential set-up of shared industry-wide platforms.
Muhammad said Islamic financial institutions were encouraged to come together and drive the initiative to develop the industry’s own internationally acceptable code of conduct and standards of Islamic financial practices.
“Going forward, we can expect more leadership from the Islamic financial institutions in making the paradigm shift to promote industry development initiatives and to become less government-led and more market-driven,” he said.
This called for more efforts among industry players to increase cooperation, establish more strategic alliances and build closer relationships across borders in various fields, according to Muhammad.
“As Malaysia’s Islamic finance industry continues to grow and expand beyond domestic boundaries, our Islamic financial institutions are well positioned to initiate and lead efforts in converging different organisations’ financial practices,” he said.
— BERNAMA